#ThinkPress - July 2014

By Thinkful

People keep on talking about us - check out July’s roundup below!

Coding Bootcamp Scholarships for Women

Our very own Tatiana has been working tirelessly to get the word out about her list of coding bootcamp scholarships specifically geared towards women. At Thinkful, we’re all about encouraging more women to get into coding, and we’re not alone.

Women in tech, or the lack thereof, is a familiar conversation these days - particularly in the startup world. We’re working hard to change that.

Quirky Approaches to the Job Search

We’ve seen and heard and witnessed all kinds of out-of-the-box approaches to the job search. But no one impressed us more than Mark, our curriculum developer, who created a custom webpage to go hand-in-hand with his formal application to Thinkful.

Steph Walden at Mashable agreed and included Mark in a story she did about this very topic. Steph writes

For candidates seeking a job in programming or design, one above-and-beyond tactic is to create an eye-catching landing page, website or infographic that specifically showcases your skills. Mark McDonald, curriculum developer at Thinkful, landed his job using such an approach: He wanted to work at a technology company that aligned with his interests and values, so after narrowing down his list to a select few organizations, he built a webpage for each, and formally applied. The strategy got him call backs to every single company he applied to, including Google, Khan Academy, Clever and Thinkful.

Along with helping to bring more women into tech, Tatiana has also been focusing on getting more Army veterans involved. She’s been talking to a few Vets about their experiences working in tech after the military and learning different processes to help the transition from the military into the tech startup world easier.

Olivia Amter at RideScout, an app created by Army veterans to help locate transportation options in various cities, ran a piece that Tatiana wrote about available coding programs for Vets. The article states

In the midst of one of the highest unemployment rates for military veterans some amazing organizations and people have found ways to make a difference by helping military veterans succeed in the tech startup world.

Vets if you’re interested in picking up some new skills, let us know. We’re here to help!

Speed Without Drag @ PyData Berlin

PyData is an annual event that brings together users and developers interested in learning and sharing tips for working in Python. Saul gave an awesome talk about the different available and future options Python developers have to speed their (numerical) code without having to write the code in other languages. It’s all about seamless optimization.